What's Will Wright Up To?

SimCity and The Sims creator and game design visionary Will Wright has been awfully quiet since he left EA's Maxis in April 2009 - his latest game, Spore, came out in 2008. At a Q&A session at Game Horizon, Wright talked a little about what he's up to with his new company, Syntertainment, which has grown out of his creative think tank The Stupid Fun Club.

Wright's next game is going to be on mobile - "It’s in a totally different ball park business-wise from the old shrink-wrap model," he stated. Wright is currently interested in where and how games intersect with real life, and how they can be made more relevant to people's everyday lives. "That is a way to capture a wider audience and make things relevant," he said, "so that they are not playing in a dissociated playspace, but the games they play are connecting back to reality and giving them a different perspective on the world."

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Games have the opportunity to be different for every single player – that’s the biggest advantage that we have.

It seems that what Syntertainment's working on might actually be set in the real world, carried around with players on their phone. "I'm very interested in how we make games that are extremely unique to each individual," he said. "Games have the opportunity to be different for every single player – that’s the biggest advantage that we have.

How can we build a game about the player, around the player’s life, the places they go, who they hang out with? Instead of putting them into a general’s shoes or a D&D world, it's about bringing games back into your normal everyday life – games that intersect with reality but give you a different perspective."

Wright named three core concepts that are driving him at the moment: community, reality, and creativity. His favourite game right now? World of Tanks: "it's like an FPS for old people, you don't need super-fast reflexes," he jokes. Syntertainment is coming out of "stealth mode" later this year, says Wright, We'll know more about what he's up to before long.

Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games coverage in the UK. You can follow her on IGN and Twitter.